Australian business did not try to jack up prices ahead of the introduction of the New Tax System despite Labor's efforts to create fear and confusion, the Minister for Financial Services & Regulation, Joe Hockey, said today.
The Minister today released the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's third quarterly report into the implementation of the New Tax System. The report covers the three months to 30 June 2000.
"Based on its monitoring activities and assessment of data available to it, to date the Commission has not found evidence of price changes generally 'anticipating' the GST," the ACCC report said.
A major part of the ACCC's preparation ahead of the New Tax System was working with businesses and consumers to help them understand and comply.
"The likelihood of enforcement action was reduced as the companies and industry groups gained a clearer understanding of the implications of the price exploitation guidelines and the impact of the New Tax System on their prices and costs," the ACCC report found.
"This report shows the outstanding job the ACCC has done in informing Australia's consumers and educating Australia's businesses about the introduction of the New Tax System."
Key statistics:
- Of the 43,642 calls on the ACCC's GST Price Line in the June quarter, there were 34,890 inquiries and 8752 complaints.
- The GST web site received over 5 million hits and 1.3 million page views. In June the most popular areas were the Everyday Shopping Guide and the Small Business Pricing Kit.
- Since July 1999 the ACCC has considered 1257 matters for enforcement and at 30 June there were 508 active matters and 749 that had been completed or archived.
The ACCC report is available at www.joehockey.com